The Innocent Man

I enjoy True Crime stories, probably more than I should and I also like tales about overcoming injustice.

So this show based on John Grisham's only non fiction work, was right in my wheel house.

The problem with the series is there is a lot of filler and even repeating some of the same points, so although I found it a fascinating subject, I also felt like they could have told this in about three episodes.

Therefore, overall, I'd give this show 8 stars because it presents many important points that we should understand about our justice system, it took a little too long to get to the point.

A lot of interesting characters though, and definitely worth the watch.

I rated it 7 because the content is important, but the execution was terrible and that would rate a 5. As so many others have said, the jumping back and forth between cases is very confusing and detracts from the subject matter which is, or should be, of great concern to Americans. The music is awful, and at times drowns out what is being said on the audio tapes. I couldn't make out what anyone was saying half of the time. I was frustrated at the end because there was no clear cut resolution. I know life is like this at times, but I felt so sorry for Tommy and Fritz.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series, which takes a look at still more innocent people being locked away for decades of their lives.

But there are a couple points of confusion: Going into the second episode, I felt like I just wasn't getting enough details. You will eventually get caught up on (most of) those missing details to form a whole picture, so don't let that stop you from watching. My other problem, as another reviewer stated, is that there are so many people in the series. It can start becoming difficult to keep up with who did what, and to which case that person is connected,

Still, I do recommend it. It's an important topic that needs to be discussed more. I would like to purchase John Grisham's book now. Hopefully it will answer some of the questions I still have.

Seriously, either get a pen and paper and write down the names of the major characters and associate them with each case/victim. Mother, sister, prosecutor, accused etc... It will really help. Also, when you hear music, hit fast forward for 10 or 20 seconds. It's a good show, but it's confusing and it lingers on a bit. The show also goes back and forth between two crimes and sometimes you're not sure for a minute which crime they are speaking of at the time. I think they could have put all the information you need into 5 episodes instead of 6.

Really interesting stories of two tragic murders.

Chops back and forth between the cases in an unnecessarily confusing way at points, and goes over and over and over the same details far too often. Could have been covered in half the duration.

I get that they want to make their point and case for the story, however the borderline Michael Moore rabbit punch crescendo in the finale is unnecessary. Ironic that they want to make a case that only a small proportion of the evidence made it to the trial, whilst wanting the viewer to make their decision based on their cherrypicked highlighted sentences of evidence.

Definitely glad I persevered, albeit I'll not revisit.